


Straw Houses

by Kazzy



Category: Leonardo (TV 2011)
Genre: Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-14
Updated: 2012-03-14
Packaged: 2017-11-01 22:30:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazzy/pseuds/Kazzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’ll huff and he’ll puff and he’ll blow their houses down. They are children with secrets and he is the most powerful man in the city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Straw Houses

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer - not mine.

“I need you to help me get out of the city.” Her voice wobbles, but she holds her head high and glares at him.

“What?”

“Piero de’ Medici has promised to make us suffer,” she says, as if he might have forgotten. “I don’t plan on making it any easier for him than I have to.”

Mac, the smooth talker, can talk just about anyone into just about anything. Mac, the conman, it’s how he makes his living. Mac _says_ , “You can’t!”

Her gaze narrows further, but now he sees that it is only to hide her tears. “Don’t be an idiot, Mac. Anymore than you have to.” Her breath hitches. “You may have noticed: I’m a girl.” He’s noticed, for all the good it does him. “All he has to do is prove it and everyone goes down.”

“Whatever I can do,” he promises.

-x-x-x-

“Are you going to your parents?” She misses her mother so very much.

Her cheeks are wet. “He’ll ruin them too.” And that’s all she says about her destination.

-x-x-x-

Lorenzo is wandering in the market, alone and a little lost. Mac didn’t actually hate him before, but he thinks he might now.

“I hope you know what he’s done – your father.” He’s somewhat gratified when the other boy jumps and turns around.

“You deserve it.”

“Maybe.” He hasn’t always been the best friend he can. “But what about Leo? What about Tom?”

He flushes and looks away, but his voice is hard. “They made their choices; they chose a side. My father could have helped you – all of you – but instead you tried to ruin him.”

“So he gets to ruin us now. What about Verrocchio? Or Cosimo? Or the other apprentices? Because if Leo and Tom go down, so will they.”

That expressive mouth turns down; Lorenzo can be thoughtless and arrogant, but he isn’t cruel. “My father—” he shakes his head. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t stop him.”

“You could try.”

“Who says I haven’t?” Mac tries not to hear the bitterness.

-x-x-x-

“He doesn’t care about us, not really. He’s only interested in Leo. You can take of yourself – and if I’m not here...” she’s long given up trying not to cry, and just swipes angrily at her cheeks. “It’ll be one less way he can hurt Leo.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No. You need to watch out for Leo. And what about your boys?” She waves a hand around the room, though it’s empty. They’re all out spying for him.

-x-x-x-

“I can’t take this.” She passes the bag back to him. It has every florin he could scrape together, some food and a heavy cloak stuffed inside.

“Sure you can.” She hesitates. “If it was the other way around, you’d do the same for me,” he points out.

Her nostrils flare. “It’s a loan, only.”

“And I expect to be paid back – with interest.”

She hugs him then, the way he’s seen her with Leo a handful of times. He holds her back tightly, cherishes this last gift and silently heaps curses on the entire Medici family.

-x-x-x-

“Mac!” Leo’s eyes are wide and anxious and he’s more dishevelled than Mac’s ever seen him. “Have you seen Tom?” he asks when he’s close. “She wasn’t in her bed this morning and she didn’t turn up for breakfast and Verrocchio is furious!”

-x-x-x-

“You can’t tell him you’ve seen me.”

-x-x-x-

“I’m sure she’s fine. You know she can be as bad as you for running off sometimes.” Not true, Tom only ran off when she was following one of them. Otherwise she was happy to stay and paint.

-x-x-x-

“He’s going to be worried.”

“But he’ll be safe.” She makes a face at the absurdity of her own statement. “Safer.”

-x-x-x-

“No. No. Piero de’ Medici has her. I know he does. Or he’s had her arrested.” Leo looks like he’s waiting for an axe to fall.

So Mac breaks a promise he didn’t actually make. But only a little. He drags Leo off to one side, so there’s less chance of being overheard. 

“She’s safe. But she has to leave.” 

Leo is shaking his head, betrayed. “No,” he repeats. “No. She can’t...”

“She has to.” He urges Leo to understand. “We have to look out for ourselves – she’s trying to keep us safe. And if she’s gone – she’ll be out of his reach. You can’t protect her Leo.”

Leo rubs his face with his hands. “This is wrong. I’m going to talk to Lorenzo.”

Mac resists the urge to tell him that it won’t help.

-x-x-x-

It doesn’t. But when has that ever stopped Leo?

-x-x-x-

He finds her on a balcony, looking up. “I thought you were leaving.”

“What do you think he sees when he looks up?” she asks. “Leo, I mean.”

Up above the stars shine down from inky blackness, silently unwilling to offer any of their secrets. Maybe they know how Leo thinks, but mere mortals are denied that privilege. “I don’t know.”

A warm hand slides into his and grips it like a lifeline. This is all they have.

They stay there until dawn touches the horizon.


End file.
